European Masters Programme for Rural Animators

The European Masters Programme for Rural Animators (EMRA) will start in March 2013. It is offered by a consortium of six universities based in Poland, Greece, Romania, Germany, Spain and Hungary, plus the European Academy of Sustainable Rural Development. It is conducted in English, and is run on a distance-learning basis, so that students can undertake it from their home or their place of work.
The course is structured into 4 semesters over a 2-year period. It includes a 10-day seminar in the middle of the first year, attended by all students;   a period of practical placement;   and preparation of a Master thesis. This programme is designed to offer a strong academic training for people who now work, or who wish to work, in the field of rural development, particularly those who are in the front line of practical policy and action, working with and for rural communities anywhere in Europe.
Skills of the kind offered by this programme are particularly needed within Local Action Groups operating under the LEADER or Fisheries programmes;  other types of sub-regional development agency;  local authorities, voluntary bodies and others working in the field of rural development.